Rotatable clinch nuts of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,374,382 are widely used for a variety of applications. One application is attachment to the tongue of an electrical end ring. The tongue is the flat extension of the terminal that has a hole for receiving a stud to which the end becomes attached. The use of a rotatable nut to complete the attachment to the stud provides the advantage of limiting the number of loose parts since it remains attached to the cable end.
Electrical end rings or ring terminals are typically manufactured from relatively soft materials such as aluminum or copper. In many cases, the diameter of the hole in the tongue is relatively large compared to the width of the tongue; therefore, the width of tongue material around the hole is very small. With these conditions displacer-type fasteners, such as rotatable clinch nuts, tend to produce material bulging and dimensional growth of the tongue around the hole during installation. Such distortion can cause poor rotational and performance characteristics of the nut after installation because these unwanted dimensional changes reduce the tongue material retention overlap with the clinch features of the nut.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide installation tooling that prevents dimensional changes of the tongue during the installation of fasteners such as rotatable nuts. It would also be desirable to provide installation tooling having means for accurately centering the nut on the receiving hole and preventing over stressing of the tongue. It would be further desirable to provide means for ejecting the tongue from the installation tooling without damage to the part if it becomes stuck.